Los Angeles history

Matt Weinstock

February 25, 2008 | 7:32
pm

Feb. 25, 1958

Everyone, it
seems, is trying to write television scripts, but Al Blake hadn't given
it a thought until a friend called him one day and said, "Al, I'm in an
awful fix. I've got a job as a writer and I don't know what to do."

Al,
whose only claim to writing fame was his unpublished book titled "How
to Become a Successful Thief," dealing with crime and punishment, of
which he has a firsthand knowledge, offered to help.

The friend
gave him the rundown, and Al batted out a script, which the friend
submitted and which was accepted. Under his friend's goading, Al
ghosted four more which were also accepted.

THEN ONE DAY the
friend said, "Al, I've got some news for you. You just quit. That is, I
quit. I got another job. But I told them you'd been writing the scripts
and recommended you."

To Al's surprise the producer called him and he continued writing them for more than a year.

That's all over now but it gave Al a foothold in the business. He now writes for "Preliminary Hearing" on Sunday, Channel 9.

A MIMEOGRAPHED interoffice
letter from the big boss at Rocketdyne, subject: "Letter of
Congratulations," went out to all employees. It began, "The historic
launching of the first American satellite by our Redstone engine
reemphasizes the vital role our division is playing in the nation's
security and progress...."

Remarked one horse-playing employee: "What have we got to crow about? We only got show. The Russians still have win and place."

VIA DOVE, sent out by a flood-marooned wife in Rolling Hills, comes a dramatic tale of the elements.

During
last week's storm, it came time for her very shaggy collie dog to go
outside. The pooch was reluctant but she finally shooed him out the
door. Whereupon a gust of wind from the howling gale struck him
broadside, where his wind resistance was greatest, and knocked him
down, with great loss of dignity.

A LADY GARDENER named
Hilda has lost another bout with a very smart gopher--but with a
strange denouement. It had eluded her traps and the water cure so she
placed poisoned wheat in its burrow. Old gopher wouldn't go for it but
she had a wonderful crop of wheat growing out of the burrow.

THEN THERE'S the
green-thumbed lady named Carol who found a bag of strange-looking
stuff in the garage. She took a sample of it to a nursery and was told
it looked like bone meal. So she worked a lot of it in among her
rosebushes and they're doing better than ever before.

But a few
days ago her handyman was building a planter and after fussing around
in the garage asked what had happened to the bag of fire clay he'd left
in the garage.

You can't beat that Laurel Canyon soil, insists Carol.AT RANDOM -- Merle
Zee would have us believe that on the first day of the recent bus
strike a driver of Irish descent put a sign on his bus, "Flaherty will
get you nowhere" ... Sam Dodd of Glendale has had tiny tabs printed
stating "I object to this kind of advertising. Please don't send me any
more" --which he puts on junk mail with prepaid return postcards ... A
TV pitchman said that his firm was overstocked with fine used cars
because new car sales "have been skyrocketing upward." If they ever
started redundancying downward he'd really be in trouble ... There were
so many boat trailers on the highway to and from Palm Springs Sunday
that Harold Mallon wondered if he ought to get a mariner's license ...
When his companion declined his offer to buy a drink, a man in a
downtown bar remarked, "The trouble with you is you're vitamin happy!"